I was minding my own business, walking to class today at UVM, when I was stopped by a girl offering me a Peter Shumlin sticker.  I had a small roll in my bag, so I said no, I didn’t need one, and kept walking on my way.  Then, thirty steps later, I was again offered a sticker by a man.  No, I said, and kept walking.  Then, I was offered a sticker a third time.  Finally, I stopped to talk with the woman, to figure out why all these folks were offering me these Shumlin stickers.  

“There is a big rally at noon,” she said, featuring Shumlin himself.  

I’m a fairly involved student on campus, but yet this “rally” of Shumlin’s almost escaped my notice (I had class at the time, so I don’t know how many folks showed up… My guess is not many).

I enjoy being involved politically, with Democrats and Progressives alike, but I got involved because of my own volition, not because someone encouraged me too.  If someone had encouraged me to, I would have become more involved, and sooner.  

It is odd to me that walking around campus there are more posters for Dubie (recruiting paid “co-pilots”) than for Shumlin.  To me, the campaigns seem to be saying: “College students are more interested in money than politics, and they will sell out their ideals for even just a small sum.”

This seems to have some truth to it: Rich Tarrant got so many young folks involved with his campaign because he offered them laptops in exchange for a summer of service… But I know that there are way more students who would rather act on their principles than their material desires (esp. at UVM), but you just don’t see them getting roped in by the more liberal campaigns.  Why not?  

Well, their lazy, yes.  And also pretty intimidated sometimes.  I remember before I got involved, I thought I might show up and be useless to campaigns who had better, more experienced hands available to them (I quickly learned that you earn accolades just by showing up, and doing a good four hours work well makes you a hot commodity).

But talking about how uninvolved and disengaged younger voters are won’t compel them to change.  Honestly, many of my friends are just waiting for that push out the door (and sometimes I think they get a little tired of me trying to give it to them), and a good ad campaign on college campuses, not asking for votes, but for involvement, might actually generate some interest and results.  

It might go something like this:

“Hey! College kid!!

Sick of politicians who do nothing about climate change?!  Sick of being a criminal for smoking a plant?!  Sick of paying thousands of dollars to go to school, only to enter a jobless job market?!

WELL, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Politics in Vermont isn’t like politics in Cali or Jersey: Here, you might bump into your Senator in the coffee shop, and you might see your Governor at City Market.  Here, your voice gets heard.  Here, you can change things for the better.  

So, what are you waiting for?!  Get involved!”

College students care.  And most of the time, all they can do to show it is walk around campus holding signs and beating drums.  They love it!  But here is something grander, not just in scope, but in effectiveness.  

The key is: Most college students feel like politics is something stuffy and distant.  Here, it is not.  Show them that they can make a difference, lead them to the door, and compel them, with a direct ask, to get involved.  

Then, Peter Shumlin won’t have to be so lonely when he shows up on campus.  

Let’s pause for a moment and consider this image.

As previously noted, this is part of an anti-Shumlin stunt that the Dubie campaign denies has anything to do with them.  The Dubie campaign classifies this as jokes and games, but they somehow fail to notice that this is about racism.

Wearing a swastika while protesting a candidate is fairly tasteless.  Wearing a swastika while protesting a Jewish candidate goes far beyond that.  This isn’t something that any campaign should be disavowing as a trick or a prank.  This is something that Dubie’s campaign should be calling out as overtly racist.

The failure of Dubie’s campaign to note this action as something which is (a) at least partially their responsibility and (b) dog whistle racism is a sign of where some of his support lies.  Just like with the “Take Back Vermont” crowd, the tea partiers supporting Dubie are not just about lower taxes but, as with the various racist imagery we’ve seen at tea party rallies during the 2008 campaign, about xenophobia and racism as well.

To be clear: this is not something everyone in the tea party supports and this is not necessarily something even the Dubie campaign itself supports.  But the campaign knows it’s beholden to the interests, some of them powerful interests, of people who proudly support some of this racism.  For the Dubie campaign to push back against it would actually probably cost them some of that support.  

This is an ongoing problem with falling in bed with right wing radical groups: their support and energy is helpful to you, and their fundraising can be strong, but then you are placed in the uncomfortable position of being completely incapable of responding properly to overt racism.

Keep in mind: I am not accusing the Dubie campaign of racism.  Nor am I accusing most of his supporters of being racist.  I am saying that there is enough of a racist faction within his support base that they can’t be easily alienated or fought, especially not in an election this close.

To put it more simply: I don’t think the Dubie campaign is racist, but I think this “stunt” demonstrates quite clearly that they’re racist-adjacent.

Tonight in Bennington at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (map there will be one of the ongoing peoples’ forums, focused on:

• Developing a health care system that works for everyone


• Affordable childcare and access to quality early education


• Access to jobs and the impact of cuts to public services

The candidate forums are sponsored by the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign – Vermont Workers’ Center,  Vermont Early Educators United – American Federation of Teachers and the Vermont Center for Independent Living.

Confirmed Attendees are:

Sen. Bob Hartwell

Rep. Alice Miller

Rep. Cynthia Browning

Rep. Bill Botzow

Rep. Mary Morrissey

Brian Campion

Brandy Reynolds

Rep. Anne Mook

Francis Kinney

Claude DeLucia

Sen. Dick Sears

Rep Joe Krawczyk.

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New Poll Shows Cuomo Skyrocketing to an Commanding 35-Point Lead and Cruising Toward Biggest Landslide Victory in N.Y. Gubernatorial Race Since His Father’s 1986 Re-Election; Only 11 Percent of Voters Have Favorable View of Paladino and Solid 59 Percent Majority Say Tea Party-Backed Republican is Unfit to Serve as Governor

NEW YORKERS TO PALADINO: “WE’LL TAKE YOU OUT, BUDDY!” — Those now-infamous words shouted by Carl Paladino (left), the Tea Party-backed Republican nominee for New York governor, in a heated clash with a reporter on September 30 might become his political epitaph, as Paladino’s poll numbers have plunged dramatically since his Tony Soprano impersonation and a series of anti-gay remarks so inflammatory that his openly gay nephew publicly rebuked him and the rest of the Paladino family forced the candidate to issue an apology. His Democratic rival, Andrew Cuomo (right) has skyrocketed to a commanding 35-point lead, according to a New York Times poll published Monday, just a week before next Tuesday’s election, with a solid 59 percent majority of likely voters saying Paladino is unfit to be governor. (Photos: Getty Images)

(Posted 5:00 a.m. EDT Tuesday, October 19, 2010)

By SKEETER SANDERS

PLATTSBURGH, New York — With just two weeks to go before the Empire State’s voters cast their ballots, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Cuomo has rocketed to a commanding 35-point lead over his Tea Party-backed Republican rival, Carl Paladino, according to a new poll released Monday — with an astonishingly large majority of respondents saying that Paladino’s “angry,” “bigoted” and “obnoxious” personality makes him unfit to be governor.

The poll by The New York Times showed the state attorney general holding a better than two-to-one lead over Paladino, 59 percent to 24 percent, a gain of four points since a Quinnipiac College poll released on October 8. Meanwhile, support for the multimillionaire Buffalo businessman plunged 10 points from the 34 percent Paladino garnered in the Quinnipiac survey.

If Cuomo’s huge lead remains intact by election day, he would be on track to score the greatest landslide victory in a New York gubernatorial election in the state’s history — topping the 33-point landslide of his father, Mario Cuomo, who buried his GOP opponent, Andrew O’Rourke, 64 percent to 32 percent, to win a second term in 1986.  

Paladino’s standing with voters — already damaged by his highly-publicized confrontation on September 30 with a reporter in which Paladino, acting like a Mafia boss, threatened, “I’ll take you out, buddy!” — plunged into a free fall after he made a series a highly inflammatory anti-gay remarks, including a speech on October 9 at a conservative Jewish synagogue in Brooklyn in which the candidate said that children should not be “brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option.”

SURVEY FINDS A SOLID MAJORITY JUDGING PALADINO UNFIT TO BE GOVERNOR

The Times poll, conducted Sunday through Friday of last week, found an astonishing 59 percent of respondents saying that Paladino does not have the temperament that makes him fit to serve as the state’s chief executive, and that 55 percent said the millionaire Buffalo real estate developer has neither the political nor governmental experience required for the office. More tellingly, 43 percent of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of Paladino, while only 11 percent viewed him favorably.

Poll respondents, when asked what came to mind the most about Paladino when his name was mentioned, answered with a variety of highly negative descriptions of him, including “angry” — by his own admission, Paladino said he was “mad as hell” — “bigoted” for his anti-gay diatribes and “obnoxious” for his confrontation with New York Post reporter Fred Dicker.

TEA PARTY-BACKED REPUBLICAN RAN NEARLY EVEN WITH CUOMO IN SEPTEMBER

In a September 22 Quinnipiac College poll, Cuomo led Paladino by only six points, 49 percent to 43 percent, powered at the time by solid support among Republicans (83 percent) and independents (49 percent). A separate poll by Survey USA released the same day showed Cuomo leading 49 percent to 40 percent.

But on September 30, Paladino sank the already-heated campaign to succeed outgoing Governor David Paterson into the gutter when he accused Cuomo, a divorced father of three, of cheating on his former wife, Kerry Kennedy, a daughter of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, without furnishing a shred of proof to back him up.

Later that same day, Paladino came unglued — in full view of TV news cameras.

When challenged by Dicker, the Post’s state news editor and Albany bureau chief, to provide evidence to back up his accusations against Cuomo, Paladino accused the reporter of working for the Cuomo campaign and, acting as though he were Tony Soprano, the fictional New Jersey organized-crime boss in the acclaimed television series, “The Sopranos,” warned Dicker, “I’ll take you out, buddy!”

The equally tough-talking Dicker, the dean of the Albany press corps, demanded to know how Paladino would “take him out” — widely interpreted as a threat of bodily harm. Paladino then replied, “Watch!” before he was hustled away by his aides while an indignant Dicker shot back, “Are you threatening me?”.

In fact, it was Kennedy who was cheating on Cuomo, not the other way around. Kennedy was having an affair with Bruce Colley, a New York restaurateur and socialite. Colley confirmed the affair in 2003 just days after Cuomo and Kennedy announced they were ending their marriage. Paladino ultimately retracted his claim against Cuomo, admitting that he had no proof.

(Paladino’s clash with Dicker ultimately cost him the editorial support of the arch-conservative Post, owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. The tabloid on Monday endorsed Cuomo, branding Paladino “undisciplined, unfocused and untrustworthy — that is, fundamentally unqualified for the office he seeks.”)

PALADINO IGNITES FIRESTORM WITH ANTI-GAY TIRADES      

Support for Paladino already was declining when, on October 8, the Republican went on the attack against gays, telling an ultraconservative Hasidic Jewish congregation in Brooklyn that children should not be “brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option. It isn’t.”

Paladino made clear his opposition to same-gender marriage, telling congregants at another Brooklyn synagogue, “I oppose the homosexual agenda, whether they call it marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships. Marriage is between a man and a woman!”

The timing of Paladino’s anti-gay remarks, amidst a rash of suicides of young people — including a New Jersey college student who jumped off the George Washington Bridge — who were bullied for being gay or perceived as gay and just two days after the vicious beating and sodomizing of two teen-agers by a Bronx street gang in a rampage of anti-gay violence, ignited a firestorm of outrage from across the political spectrum.

Undaunted, Paladino took aim at New York’s annual Gay Pride Parade two days later, when, appearing on the “Imus in the Morning” radio show, said, “I don’t think I’d be proud to take my child to a gay pride parade where you have these men in Speedos and otherwise naked grinding against each other up in the back of a truck. I think it’s disgusting.”

Less than an hour later, on NBC’s “Today” show, Paladino repeated his remarks, saying that “children should not be exposed to that [homosexuality] at a young age. They don’t understand this. It’s a very difficult thing. And exposing them to homosexuality, especially at a gay pride parade — and I don’t know if you’ve ever been to one — but they wear these little Speedos and they grind against each other. It’s just a terrible thing. Why would you bring your children to that?”

HOMOPHOBIC RANTS INFURIATE PALADINO’S OPENLY GAY NEPHEW

The candidate’s homophobic rants drew a sharp public rebuke from his nephew, Jeff Hannon, who is openly gay. In an interview with the Post, the 23-year-old Hannon, who worked for the Paladino campaign until his uncle’s anti-gay tirades, said that he personally was “very offended” by his uncle’s remarks and abruptly quit the campaign. He hasn’t shown up at Paladino headquarters in Buffalo for more than a week.

The newspaper quoted a Paladino campaign staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying Wednesday that other campaign workers were concerned for Hannon’s whereabouts, particularly in the wake of the recent suicides. “Everybody was talking about it today. They are worried about him,” said the staffer. “They think he’s upset.”

So, apparently, was the rest of the Paladino family as well.  Numerous press reports said that the family demanded that the candidate issue a public apology — which he did in a written statement last Tuesday. “I sincerely apologize for any comment that may have offended the gay and lesbian community or their family members,” the Paladono statement said. “Any reference to branding an entire community based on a small representation of them is wrong.”

Paladino’s campaign manager, Michael Caputo, confirmed that the candidate’s family has pressured him to apologize, out of concern for Hannon. “Carl felt the sting of this directly through his family and thought through his response with many inputs,” said Caputo.

The candidate’s apology, however, cost him the support of the far-right ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Yehuda Levin, whose anti-gay views are only slightly to the left of the gay-hating extremist Kansas cult leader, Fred Phelps.

“Mazel tov,” Levin told reporters after Paladino’s mea culpa, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “We’ll have a coming-out party. But when he came to me three days ago, he didn’t know that? I find this to be condescending.”

Paladino might have a problem with the Gay Pride parade, but he apparently doesn’t have a problem with lesbians, according to the Web site WNYMedia.net, which published on Wednesday another set of X-rated e-mails purportedly sent by Paladino to his friends. The images include a photo of two lesbians in flagrante delicto, with a one-word comment: “Awesome.”

PALADINO WAS LANDLORD TO TWO BUFFALO-AREA GAY BARS

The Tea Party-backed GOP nominee’s anti-gay outbursts were made even more bizarre when the New York Daily News disclosed Wednesday that Paladino was the landlord to two Buffalo-area gay bars from 2004 to 2006 — one of which was co-owned and managed by his son, William Paladino.

A review of liquor license records by the newspaper found that the younger Paladino co-owned and operated Cobalt, a nightclub in downtown Buffalo housed in one of many buildings owned by his father from May 2004 through July 2006. A 2005 review of Cobalt in the Buffalo News described the nightspot  as “Way Gay,” noting, “The queens, the techno, the cocktails, the kind of gyration normally confined to Manhattan was in full flaming force at Cobalt.”

But in late 2005, the younger Paladino abruptly renamed the club Tantra and converted it to a straight nightclub — retaining all the straight bartenders and firing all the gay staff, according to a gay former bartender, Kevin Van Wagner, who told the Daily News, “The way that they did it was really horrible. They told us we were no longer going to be a gay bar, that we [gay bartenders] were no longer going to have jobs.”

William Paladino is now a top executive of his father’s Buffalo-based Ellicott Development Company, a property management, leasing and real estate development firm.

The other gay nightspot, Buddies II, which is still operating, was housed in another Paladino-owned building in 2005 and 2006, according to liquor license records. The bar it described itself as a “bar where anyone and everyone is welcome [and] prejudices are left at the door.”

# # #

Copyright 2010, Skeeter Sanders. All rights reserved.

Part two of excerpts from the REV debate.

A few days ago I posted about having noticed a Dubie for Governor poster attached to a truck doing road construction in Brattleboro.

This time I have pictures:

We’d already figured that this was a truck involved in receiving state funds.  It’s also a company that’s a Dubie donor.

(update: I forgot to provide the link demonstrating that they receive state funds.  Here’s a link to one of the bid results from the AOT website itself.  I  think this is for the same contract that they’re doing currently, but they were the winning bidders on multiple other contracts as well.)

In March, 7 Days reported on a Dubie birthday bash.  One company in particular stands out in terms of donations:

Deb Ricker not only gave $2000 personally, but two of her companies – L&D Safety Marking Company and WorkSafe Traffic Control Industries – also pitched in $2000 apiece. Maybe a birthday hat in the shape of a safety cone?

What’s on the side of this truck?

I don’t know enough about how trucks are marked and labeled.  I didn’t get its license plate, but I did get this:

I want to be clear about something: while I am somewhat concerned about someone who receives contracts for state work donating large sums of money to candidates for Governor, I am deeply concerned about someone using the support they get from the state as an opportunity to advertise for a candidate for Governor.  

In my years of working as a state contractor, doing presentations across the state, I never used that opportunity to advocate for candidates.  I would never have dreamt of wearing a Clavelle or Parker t-shirt when presenting in the public on behalf of the state of Vermont.  I wouldn’t even put campaign buttons on my laptop case.  Similarly, when I teach for the Vermont State College system, I do not advocate for candidates to my students.  I even had a perfect lesson to use with my students about plagiarism in the form of the Martha Rainville campaign that would have fit perfectly with an existing lesson plan, but I chose to avoid that specific issue because it would have been inappropriate to bring a specific political campaign into the mix.  

So while I don’t have any problem with this company receiving contracts from the state of Vermont.  Assuming their work is of good quality and they’re being paid appropriate for the services they render (and I see no reason to assume otherwise), that part is fine.

The other part should be easy to understand.  This is a company which has maxed out its donations to Brian Dubie, but is, additionally, providing an in-kind donation by using its truck fleet to advertise for him while doing work on behalf of the state.

This is unacceptable.  It needs to stop.

I don't do this very often, but because the issue is so important I'm bumping and updating a diary I did two years ago talking about why we need to keep Sally Fox in the State Senate.

 To supplement my points below, I want to talk about how hard Sally worked during this past legislative session for the rights and interests of some of the most powerless people in the state, those who receive mental health treatment at what was the State Hospital until it got flooded out and the other community hospitals. Sally fought hard for patients' rights, both before and after she had to take a medical leave for cancer treatment. Sally is the co-chair of the Mental Health Oversight Committee and a reliably progressive voice on the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. 

If you're a voter in Chittenden County, one of your votes should go to Sally Fox.

Sally has a record of thirty years of progressive advocacy. She's been a lawyer at Vermont Legal Aid, representing disabled and impoverished Vermonters. She has served on the boards of the Vermont ACLU, the Vermont Children's Forum, and the Vermont Commission to End Childhood Poverty. Because of her great work on behalf of children, Sally was named Legislator of the Millennium by the Vermont Children's Forum.

Sally gets things done. After leaving the legislature in 2000, Sally became the Director of Family Court Operations for the Vermont Supreme Court and served there until 2002.  She was responsible for the administration of all of the Vermont Family Courts as well as policy development, planning, and grant development.

Sally has served as Policy Director for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility,as the coordinator for the City of Burlington Offender Reentry Program, and as the legislative liaison for the Vermont State Colleges. She has worked to develop supportive programs for returning offenders, and she helped to establish the Vermont Pre-kindergarten through 16 Council, which will bring stakeholders in education from preschool through college together to develop a plan to increase the number of Vermonters who continue their education beyond 12^th grade.

Sally has a proven record of legislative leadership. She has served in the House for fourteen years. During her time in the House Sally served as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, the House Appropriations Committee, and the Joint Fiscal Committee. She was also Assistant Majority Leader. Because there will be so much turnover in the Senate this year, Sally's experience is more important than ever.

Sally is a reliable progressive voice. With some of our strongest leaders in the struggles we care about, like health care and Vermont Yankee, leaving, and extreme budget pressures working against the efforts to serve human needs, we will need someone to keep the needs of the most vulnerable Vermonters, the poor, children, people with disabilities, and working people at the top of the agenda. Sally can be counted on to be that person.

It is rare that Vermont voters have a chance to elect someone as well-qualified and committed to Vermont's progressive values as Sally Fox. When I talk about “more and better Democrats”, Sally Fox is the kind of candidate I'm talking about. I hope you'll do everything you can to elect Sally Fox to the Vermont Senate.

The annual pre-election Democratic gala known as the Autumn Harvest Rally was held Saturday night at the Old Labor Hall in Barre. Turnout was decent, with some exceptions.

There were a couple of empty spots in the horn of plenty:  the absences of two sets of major players.

None of the “gang of four” Democratic gubernatorial primary candidates put in an appearance; and neither did incumbents State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding or Attorney General Bill Sorrell.

I raised the question recently as to why Peter Shumlin hasn’t asked his former rivals to help out in making appearances on his behalf across the state. It’s hard to see any downside to that as a strategy. And they all offered, even promised they would help.

Pride? Maybe. There’s some saying about pride being maintained at some cost … we hope it’s not at the cost of the election.

At the Harvest event I heard that Deb Markowitz had made an ‘amazing’ number of fundraising calls for Peter Shumlin. And I know that Matt Dunne hosted a house party that raised about $20k.

Still, none of them could put in an appearance? Help rally the troops? Present at least the image of a still-united front working against the economic disaster awaiting us if Dubie wins?

At least as troubling was the absence of Sorrell and Spaulding – not only at the Harvest Rally, but also in the donor ranks for the coordinated campaign, at least according to what I hear.

[continued on the flip]

Neither Spaulding nor Sorrell has a strong opponent, and apparently neither has felt any need to actually, you know, campaign for his elected position. Both are reasonably popular – although the unions are not liking Jeb much just now (here’s a more positive analysis).

Sorrell’s popularity is to my mind totally inexplicable. I mean, here’s a guy who thinks his job as attorney general (not surgeon general) is to work on childhood obesity; who argued against marriage equality (in the original Baker v. State case) in the state supreme court, and then just last spring denied it when he was in search of signatures for his nominating petition; and who has sat back and not lifted a finger to alleviate federal discrimination against legally married Vermonters.

Talk about your fair-weather ‘friends!’ These solidly entrenched politicos apparently show up only when they want something from the party, and presumably for their taxpayer-funded jobs. Heaven forbid they should actually contribute something to the party that helped them get where they are now. Something for the campaign finance kitty, something for the folks, something simple, like showing up.

Speaking of weather, I kept waiting for someone, maybe Patrick Leahy (who, btw, handed VDP chairwoman Judy Bevans his donor match check, as much as I’ve ever made in a year), to say, “We’re proud to be Vermont Democrats, come hail or high water!”